“Faversham” is the (hopefully first) collaboration between Australian multi-instrumentalist Leighton Arnold, regularly based in South Korea, and myself, dropping the subespai moniker for the first time in history.
Conceived mid-2017 after a recorded improvisation session held in a rehearsal studio in Marrickville, Inner West Sydney; and after a long period of correspondence full of listening and re-listening, chopping, editing and discarding, we managed to settle with five cuts and 41 minutes of the more than two hours of original material.
“Faversham” is a collection of dark soundscapes, sprinkled with hope at times. The result of mixing guitar passages, low-frequency drones, field recordings, bells and traditional Korean instruments. The tracks evoke a landscape of barren lands, abandoned factories, old forests and a thick fog that surrounds the everything.
The tracks were recorded and mixed by Leighton himself, and as usual in my projects, the artwork and layout is from jwptn. The album has been released by the amazing underground Sydney label chemical imbalance.
Teaser trailer
Buy / Stream / Download
Get it here: chemical-imbalance.bandcamp.com/album/edo-arnold-faversham-lp
Reviews:
[…] Faversham is a dark ambient album in which the layers of each soundscape seem to have a clean purity about them. I never felt that there were too many elements vying for my attention, and the ones that were there, such as the crackling or chiming, sat nicely in the soundscape, easy to enjoy and absorb. […]
[…] And yet, there is something almost soothing about Faversham. The drones and dark ambient soundscapes are hypnotic, and those sections of melody and conventional music can lull the listener into a sense of near-relaxation. Whilst it would be inaccurate to describe it as accessible or welcoming, Faversham is as close as dark ambient can be to either description.
Convinced that this recording is a time capsule floating through space I’m completely mesmerized by the way it tells a story through electronics and sound samples. […] They know when to keep the reverb steady and somber, and when to blend suspicious effects that lend to the goings-on. […]
Other media coverage:
- Trace soundtrack (ABC podcasts, season 2, 2020)
- Ears have ears (FBI Radio, NSW)
- Subsequence radio (5 Triple Z, South Australia)
- Caliper music blog
Press kit:
Subespai 